Belt and process of making same



Apr. 24, 1923. 1,452,704

H. POULIN ET AL BELT AND PROCESSv OF MAKING SAME Filed May 6, 1922 Patented Apr; 24, 1923.

v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HECTOR L. POIILIN AND ULRIC A. POULIN, OF ANTHONY, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNORS TO THE ROSELLA MILLS INC., A CORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND.

BELT AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

Application filed May 6,

T 0 a7. Z whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HECTOR L. POULIN and Unnro A. POULIN, both citizens of the United States, residing at Anthony, in the county of Kent and State of R-hode. Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Belts and Processes of Making Same, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to belts and particularly to belts composed of felt.

The essential objects of the invention are to insure a practically endless belt; uniformity of thickness throughout its entire length; a strong and inconspicuous union of the original ends, and in an inexpensive and facile manner.

To the above ends essentially our invention consists in such parts and in such combinations of parts, and in such steps and in such successions of steps as fall within material in the following manner.

the scope of the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings which form a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a complete belt embodying our invention,

Figure 2, an enlarged longitudinal section of a portion of the same on line 2-2 of Figure 1,

Figure 3, a fragmentary perspective view of the same,

Figure 4, a perspective view, partially in broken lines of the belt in an incomplete sta e of construction, and

igure 5, a detail view of the lower end of a needle punch.

Like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the views.

In constructing our belt a base strip 7 of flexible material, in this instance of woven or knitted fabric, is provided, to whose opposite faces are fixed layers 10, 11, of siplft e strip 7 in unbent form is extended lengthwise on a suitable support and a strip 10 of soft compressible fibrous material, such as batting, preferably of wool, is spread upon its upper face. The parts thus assembled are fixed to each other by forcing at multitudinous points over the area series of wads, projections or bunches of fiber 12 of the strip 10 into perforations 13 through the strip 7. A convenientmeans for forming the perforations nd forcing the wads therethrough is'by iiiecting into the assembled 1922. Serial in. 558,863.

parts a gang of needle punches. Each punch comprises a body 15 preferably acute angular in cross section terminating in a point 16 and provided with undercut lateral shoulders or prongs 17 formed in its longitudinally disposed edges 18 in staggered relation to each other. The prongs drag the adjacent fibers into or through the perforations 13 formed by the passage of the point 16 through the strip 7. The withdrawal of the punches leave hardly perceptible perforations 20 in the layer 10. It will be understood that these perforations 20 are after the withdrawal of the punches nearly closed and are exaggerated in the drawings for illustrative purposes, and that for a like reason the showing of the perforations 13 and wads or groups of fiber 12 are conventionalized. The attachment of the strip 10 continues to a point adj acentgone end of the strip 7 leaving an unsecured end portion 22 of the batting. v The other end of the batting 10 terminates as at 23 a distance short of the corresponding end of the strip 7. The parts are now bent into elliptical form with the ends of the strip 7 overlapping each other as shown in Figure 4. Next the flap 22 is depressed into contact with the lap and with its end face abutting against its opposite end face as at 23, whereupon the needles operate upon the parts as before forcing the wads 12 through perforations 25 which extend through the two overlapping thicknesses of the base strip 7. In the drawings the flap 22 is shown of increased thickness for the reason that the batting being somewhat compressible is rendered somewhat less thick by the operation of the punches in the process of attachment. The arrows in Figure 4 show the direction of action of the unches.

T e belt in its incomplete condition is next turned inside out, and a layer 11 of batting is laid completely over the entire length of the exposed face of the overlapped strip 7 and afiixed to the face by the hereinabove described action of the needles. Thus collections of fibers, wads, or projections 27 enter and traverse erforations 28 in the unlapped portion 0 strip 7, and through perforations 29 in the lapped portions.

The felted layers 10 and 11 are nowfirmly and unmovably held in' engagement with the base strip, both at the lap ed and unlapped portions thereof by the rictional enagement of the wads in the rforations. %urthermore the lapped portlons of the complete belt are so intimately united as not to be evident to the eye, nor appreciable on the operating face or faces of the belt. The visibility of the lap in the drawings is for purposes of illustration only.

It will be observed that after the initial construction above described the number of layers 10 and 11 may be increased to any desired number by alternately turning the described strip inside out.

We claim 1. In a belt of the character described, a base strip comprising overlapping ends provided With perforations, continuous batting layers on opposite sides of the base strip, and constituent portions of said layers extending into the perforations and frictionally engaged therein.

2. The process of forming a belt consisting in overlapping the ends of a base strip, applying layers of batting to the opposite sides of the strip over the ends, and forcing portions of the batting layers through the base strip.

In testimony whereof we have aflixed our signatures.

' HECTOR L. POULIN.

ULRIC A. POULIN. 

